Inspired By You
by reno-xxxXXXxxx
Summary: Coauthored with Le Pecore Nere....Everyone has their beginnings, learn how a young girl by the name of Elena was inspired. ElenaxReno.
1. Chapter 1

**Authors note: **Welcome to Inspired By You! Me and Le Pecore Nere are co-authoring this story, she did this chapter, so all credits go to her

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Elena sat on the chair of the house. She had just gotten a letter from Shinra Company, it read:

_Ms. Elena Spalinger,_

_You've been accepted for a job at the Department of General Affairs. You are to report to building C for your interview. Be there at 0700 on Friday and be on time. Be sure to bring this letter and a positive ID. Wear something loose._

_Head of the Department of General Affairs _and an unreadable signature.

She had always wanted a job, but she didn't ever remember applying for a job in Shinra. She sighed; she still had a few days before she had to go.

* * *

Elena found herself sitting in a café, bored out of her mind. She had just gotten out of her karate class and liked to come to this café to wind down. It was a nice place with a quite atmosphere that she loved. She would often come here to study or just read a book, but not today, she sat there with the letter in her hands, wondering about it. _'Maybe I shouldn't show up…'_ She thought, after all, her mom had told her to be cautious, because you never knew what lay around the corner. _'That'd be stupid, this is a job, and you don't want to turn that down, beside, Shinra pays really well.'_ She sighed; maybe things would be better than her last job. She had resolved it, she would go to the interview and see what kind of stuff she was doing, and if she didn't like it, she wouldn't take the job.

* * *

Elena sat in the car. _'Great, just great, today's the interview, and I'm going to be late, some first impression.'_ She thought, stuck in traffic. She hated Midgar traffic in the morning. She found the request for clothing a little strange, at most job interviews, you wore presentable clothes, and she hoped it wasn't a joke and she going to make a fool of herself. The traffic slowly inched forward. _'Maybe I would've gotten there faster if I walked…'_

By the time she arrived to Shinra Building C, she was a half hour late. _'Not as bad as I thought.'_ She thought and got out of the car and walked up to the building. _'This isn't right…'_ The building looked more like a warehouse. She prepared herself for the worse and opened the old brown double doors. _'I've come this far, it'd be useless to turn back now.'_ Inside were chairs and desks. Most were empty.

"Ah, welcome. I am a representative of the Department of General Affairs." A man said, walking up to her and shaking her hand. "I'll need your letter and ID." He said, cutting straight to business. She handed them to him. He nodded and told her to sit.

"Um, sir, I'm sorry I was—"

"Stuck in traffic, that's understandable, don't be late again."

"Oh… yes sir." She said and sat down at a desk next to a girl who looked about her age. She surveyed the other people, they all seemed to be different ages, and it looked like just about anyone from anywhere was here. She saw people who looked like they were from big cities, small towns, Wutai, and just about every walk of life. She wondered what kind of work they were doing here…

* * *

It was a little while later when the room was just about full of people. 

"I see everyone is here." The representative said loudly. "Now then if you all will take a seat please." He said, the dull roar quieted and people sat down.

"Now, my name is Rude, and I will be your instructor for today." He said. _'Instructor, I thought this was an interview…'_ "Now, there are some tests being passed around to see where your areas of expertise are."

Sure enough, some papers came to her, and she took one and passed it down, she felt like she was back in school again, she half expected someone to raise their hand and ask to use the bathroom.

"Okay, begin." Rude said.

* * *

It was finally over. Elena found most of the questions easy, but relatively pointless. She didn't see how various scenarios about being in trouble were part of the job, but she answered the way she would have done them. Sighing, she got back in the car. _'I hope I did good on the test…'_ With that she started the car and headed home.

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A/N ... Thanks for reading, please review? Chapter 2 (by me, renoxxxXXXxxx) will be up soon!! 


	2. Chapter 2

**Authors note:** chapter 2! This chapter is by me (renoxxxXXXxxx), enjoy!**

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**Chapter 2**

It only occurred to Elena that night that she still had no idea what the "Department of General Affairs" actually did. Sure, she had sat at the exam and everything but well, she was confused. It didn't seem like your average job.

She sat by her bedroom window, watching the sun set slowly flooding the neighbourhood with color. People in the streets below her were walking, probably home, chatting and laughing to each other. She wondered if any of them knew anything more than she did about the Department of General Affairs.

She looked up, not quite sure what had brought her out of her trance-like state. It was a few minutes before she realised the phone was ringing. She got up and went to answer it, ignoring the shiver that suddenly ran down her spine.

"Hello?"  
"Hello, Elena."  
"Oh hey, mom!" her voice brightened.  
"How'd it go, dear?"  
"It went okay, I guess. It was the weirdest interview I've ever been for, that's for sure."  
"What do you mean?"  
Elena paused for a minute, trying to think of a suitable way to explain to her mother.  
"I dunno really…it was just strange. There was an exam…"  
"And?" her mother pressed  
"Well, the questions were just weird. They were just all about…real-life situations, and what you would do in them; that kind of thing."  
"Oh right. So when are they going to let you know how you did?"  
"I dunno. They didn't say."  
"Oh, well you let me know as soon as you find out, 'kay honey?"  
"You'll be the first to know…well, second."  
"Talk to you soon."  
"See you mom."

Elena hung up the phone and looked around her. It was amazing how much  
darker it had gotten in the 5 minutes she had been on the phone. She  
went back to sitting by her window. She could no see anything out of it  
expect the white, shining moon ahead of her. She couldn't stop thinking  
about what could be in store for her now. She wondered how much that short exam  
could have changed her life.

Elena woke up to another glorious day. It was the sun that had woken  
her up; shining straight onto her face through the gap in the curtains. She sat  
up, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. Her heart seemed to skip a beat as she remembered the events of yesterday. She got up and made her way to the bathroom, grabbing whatever clothes she came across. Coming out 10 minutes later,  
pulling a brush through her hair, she caught sight of the letter from Shinra on  
the table. When are they going to let me know? She thought to herself. She  
had to go into town today to pay rent, so what if they called while she was  
gone. _Well if I don't pay, I'm gonna be out on the streets, so I'll just  
have to take that chance_. She grabbed her jacket and made her way out,  
locking the door behind her.

_Well, that's all my money gone,_ thought Elena grimly as she left the rent office. _Well, hopefully I'll get this job at Shinra…._ She shook herself mentally. She was getting ahead of herself again. She looked up at the clouds forming above her. It was going to rain…just as she thought it, a great drop of icy water dripped onto her face. She jumped slightly, and put her head down to shield her eyes from the ever-increasing rain-fall. In her hurry to get home, she didn't see the man she walked into.  
"Sorry." He said vaguely. She looked up and smiled at him. She then found herself wondering how she hadn't noticed him. His soaking hair was a vivid shade of red. Was that a new fashion or something? She had seen a lot of people today with red hair. She threw the thought aside and carried on making her way home.

The rain was heavier still when she arrived at her house. She pulled the key out and hurriedly starting opening the door. She nearly screamed when she heard a voice behind her.  
"Well, I didn't think I'd be seeing you again so soon."  
Elena turned around to look at the man in front of her. He was familiar, but it took a second for her to realise where she had seen him before. Then it clicked; it wasn't everyday when you bumped into a man like that.

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A/N : Thats it! Please review! We dont know when chapter 3 will be up but still keep reading! 


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: **This is Le Pecore Nere's chapter, credits go to her. sorry for the delay...i really have to make my chapters longer, they're tiny compared to this 

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Chapter 3

"Um…" she started "please come in." she said, oblivious to the fact that he already had. He came in and plopped down on a chair.

"So, can I get you anything?" She asked, she didn't know why the man had just walked in. What did he want?

"Naw, I'm fine, actually, I just came here to tell you that you passed the first test." At first it didn't click, and then she remembered the strange test she took.

"Oh, really? Thanks!" She started to say.

"Whoa, don't start thanking me yet doll face, wait until you start the second test. But don't let that get you down, boss says that you need to be at the Joe's Bar, and wear exercising clothes."

"Oh...kay…"

"Be there, noon on the next Friday." He said. With that, he got up and left the room.

'Ok…' she thought. That had to be the strangest visit she had ever had from anyone.

* * *

She sat up and glanced at the clock, it was 7:00 in the morning. She got up and grabbed some clothes and took a quick shower. Today was the day she would take the second test. She sat on the twin-sized bed and grabbed a book and read, until it was time to go.

* * *

She made her way through the crowd to Joe's Bar. She thought that had to be the weirdest place to meet someone, especially in this part of the slums.

Joe's Bar was located in Sector 2 slums, the place notorious for thugs to hang around.

She sighed and decided to cut across the crowd by taking a short-cut. She turned and walked briskly down the dark alley. She turned at the end, and saw the sign proclaiming "Joe's" in bold letters. The street was deserted accept for one guy. She slowly made her way down the road, eyeing the guy carefully, unsure if he was a threat.

He caught her eye and smirked and made his way over to her saying "Easy pickings." He pulled out a knife and inched his way over to her. 'What should I do?' She thought, should she fight or flee? She didn't want to get hurt, or hurt anyone else. Subconsciously she began to back away. The man was looming over her, a mask covering his face. She felt the cold brick wall press her back. She had no choice but to fight now. He came closer and thrust the knife forward. She grabbed his arm and pulled him forward and slammed him into the wall. He grunted in pain, surprised by the force she used. The man turned again and swung the knife in a clean arch, she backed up and the knife cut the air inches from her body. She didn't even think; it was like her body reacted while her mind was elsewhere. She used all her force and served him a kick to the stomach. He crumpled and fell on the ground with a groan. Her breathes came out rushed and uneven. She had no idea she had that kind of strength in her. Out of the shadows came two men.

"Stay away from me!" She said, afraid that it was one of the man's friends.

"Whoa, calm down, it's only me." Came a familiar voice.

Reno and another bald-headed man walked down the alleyway. The redhead glanced down at the man on the floor.

"You really gave him a butt-kicking." He said with a smirk "Nice job, wait 'til the boss hears this, right Rude?"

The bald-headed man called Rude simply nodded.

"Talkative as always Rude. Anyway, come with us dollface, you've completed the second test."

"Huh?" She said, confused as ever. 'What test?' but she already felt herself moving with them toward the bar.

"You mean to tell me that that man who attacked me was a _test_?" She exclaimed.

"Basically yeah." The red-head said.

"I told you not to tell her like that, Reno." Rude said.

"How else was I supposed to do it?" He asked, to which Rude just shrugged.

"You know what? You can keep your job; I don't think I want to work with some guys whose idea of a test is to have someone attack someone else!" She said. With that she stood up to leave the bar, Reno and Rude telling her it wouldn't be a good idea, but she didn't heed it and turned and bumped right into someone else; He had long black hair, tied back in a ponytail and dark grey eyes.

"Sir!" The two men exclaimed.

"It would be a good idea to sit down Ms. Spalinger." The man said, sitting down in the booth, and gesturing Reno and Rude to leave them. She sat down; something about him told her he was a man of importance.

"Now then, Ms. Spalinger, let's get down to business." He said. "You will address me as Tseng, I am the head of The Department of General Affairs, but to those who work for me, I am 'Sir' or 'Boss'."

'What?' She thought. She opened her mouth to ask why she needed to know this, but was interrupted.

"Now then, I'm going to tell you that you have been reviewed for a job under me, a very high paying job. You will receive all government benefits, insurance, health care, all that stuff. But there is a policy that we must strictly follow." He said, waiting for her to respond or ask a question, and when none came, he continued. "This policy, if it is broken, there will be strict punishment. Now there is a way we do things around here. Sure the tests are not the… average tests, but they are necessary to see what skills you can offer us, Ms. Spalinger." He paused, and she took this opportunity to ask a question.

"Um… Mr. Tseng, sir, what kind of job _is_ this?"

"Ah, the whole point of coming here is to ask you a question. Before I can tell you the job, you need to decide if you want to follow this policy of ours. If you say yes, you will complete one more test. Then you will receive training, paid for by Shin-Ra, and you will receive full pay and benefits of a regular worker. If you say no, then you can go about with your normal life."

She didn't know what she wanted, she wanted a nice high paying job, but there was too much mystery surrounding this job that she was offered. A Policy? Secrecy? Tests? Training? What kind of job were they offering here?

"You have one week to decide, Ms. Spalinger. Come to this address-" He held out a card, she took it "- next Friday with your answer." He said with that he got up and left her to think.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N:** Yay, my turn. I made my chapter longer so it's more like Le Pecore Nere's. Well, enjoy!**

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**Chapter 4**

Elena stared at the card in her hand, completely lost in thought. 3 days had already gone by, and she was rapidly running out of time to make her decision. She had weighed up the arguments for both sides so many times now, yet she was still no closer to deciding. She really didn't want to say no to such a high-paying job, but then, she still didn't really now what the job was. It could be dangerous, and in Elena's opinion, they really weren't going the right way about persuading her to say yes; especially that Reno.

It was the address on the card that mainly bugged her. Trinity Gardens; it was next to that memorial park, just on the outskirts of the Sector 7 slums. It wasn't the same address she had gone to for the first or second test, she hoped she wasn't about to be tested again. But Tseng had said she would only complete one more test if she said yes. Elena shook her head and attempted to stop arguing with herself. There was only one way to find out a little more about this place she was going.

* * *

Elena stared at the buildings in front of her. This really did seem a random place to come with an answer. It was just houses; rows and rows of ordinary houses. She could see mothers with their children outside enjoying the warm summer sun. If they were going to test her here then these people really were sick in the head. Unless one of them lived here.

"That's a good start, coming to check the place out beforehand." A voice said behind her. Elena jumped around and thrust her hand around with her, smacking a familiar redhead in the face.

"What the...? There's no need for that!" he cried, his hand on his face.

"Sorry. Reflexes." Elena said, embarrassed.  
"Ahh well. Can't do the job without 'em." He shrugged.

"What are you doing here, anyway?"

"Me? I live here babe." He said casually.

"So it's you?"

"That you have to give your answer to, yeah."

"I thought it might be something like that."

"You any closer to a decision?"

"Not really. I just don't know."

"Well, you still got 5 days to decide."

"Yeah, but I'm starting to think it's not enough. I can't decide on the information I've got. I need to know more."

"Ahh, sorry babe. No can do, only the Turks and SOLDIER are allowed to know stuff like that."

"The Turks? SOLDIER?"

"Ahh, crap. Perhaps I've said too much. I'll get goin' before I start goin' off on one…" at that he walked away from Elena, his hand raised in farwell.

_What a strange guy, I hope this job wouldn't turn me like that!_

_

* * *

_

Elena shook her head. She really had to stop judging people before she knew them properly. But this decision was getting harder and harder to make as time slipped away from her…only three days left now.

At the end of the day, what else was she going to do with her life? Sure, she had no idea what she was getting herself into, but you only lived once after all, and if she said no, she would be wondering for the rest of her life what would have happened if she'd have thought it through more carefully.

That was it, her mind was swaying to one side, but what was it that had really made her do so? Because the job certainly wasn't appealing to her at the moment. Was it him? He was certainly an interesting character, and she wouldn't say no to getting to know him a little better. In fact, they all seemed like decent people – well, the ones she had met the other day anyway.

_Well, this is no good, _Elena thought to herself. She had been sitting at home all day, and it was certainly not a nice place to think. She grabbed her jacket, in spite of the reasonably warm weather and headed outside.

She really had no idea where she was going, but she half-hoped she would run into the red-head again. She stopped outside a café, and headed inside.

"Coffee, please." Elena said politely to the woman behind the counter. She smiled and got busy on her coffee. Elena looked around the café, and someone caught her eye. A tall, big-built man with a bald head and sunglasses was sitting reading a magazine of some sort. Elena recognised the man from somewhere, but couldn't quite place where she had seen him before. The answer to her query came in the form of a tall redhead: Reno and … what was the other man's name? Rude, that was it. What were they doing here? Elena took her coffee from the woman and went to sit down at a table quite close to them. They didn't seem to have noticed her, so she listened quietly to their conversation.

"…Reno, don't be stupid. Tseng wouldn't be allowed to do that to her…" Rude said quietly.

"Well, that's what you said!"

"Reno, keep your voice down. You are such an idiot…I said…"

"Oh hey! Elena!" Reno said loudly, interrupting him. He waved over in Elena's direction. Elena looked at him, slightly shocked at Reno's sudden cry. Elena got up and went to sit by him and Rude.

"Made your decision?" Reno asked.

"I had. But now I'm not so sure…" Elena told him.

"Why?" asked Rude. He was quite sure of the reason why.

"Yeah, why? Oh wait…" Reno paused for a moment, "If it's 'cause of what I just said…"

"Ignore it." Rude interrupted. "It was Reno being a moron."

"Okay…" Still, Elena was quite uneasy.

* * *

The next three days flew by, and Elena found herself making her way over to Reno's house before she knew it. She had made her decision, and now she was going to tell Reno, before she could change her mind again.

She knocked on his door, wondering curiously if he was actually ever at work. He opened the door and grinned at Elena. Elena swallowed hard and stared at him. He folded his arms and looked at her expectantly.

"I…I'll do it. Yes." She said.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: **It's Le Pecore Nere's turn yet again, and I'll turn out chapter 6 as soon as I can!! (edited)

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**Chapter 5**

"Great, that's really great." Reno said, smiling. "Come on in, make yourself at home." "Uh... ok." She stuttered, and went in and sat down in the rather small apartment. She sat down on a rather dusty smelling sofa. Reno plopped down in an armchair. "So, what happens now?" She asked tentively.

"Well boss says you need to meet him at Chestnut Tree Café." Reno said.

"Chestnut Tree? Isn't that at the top of the plate?" Elena asked

"Sure is, he said to be there Tuesday at 09:00 sharp."

"Ok, thanks." Elena said getting up.

"Wait!" Reno said, she looked at him and sat back down. "Boss says it'd be a good idea to take a few things with you."

"Like what?" She asked; she was more confused than ever.

"I dunno, clothes, make up, whatever you girls need." Reno said with a smirk.

"W…what?" Elena asked even more confused than before.

"Don't worry about it, forget it, and just go home, we'll have everything ready for you." He said, his grin broadening. He waved her off. She stood and walked home, with a lot to think about.

* * *

Elena had gotten home; of course the meeting date was in a few days. She had so many questions, Turks… soldier… tests… training… job… what did this all mean? How was it all connected? Questions she was afraid would never be completely answered. 'What am I getting myself into?' she thought shaking her head.

* * *

Elena walked briskly through the slums where she lived up to the Chestnut Tree Café. She arrived outside the café, let out a sigh and pushed through the door. 

The Café had a rather pleasant atmosphere; the air was heavy with the smell of coffee and pastries. The room was relatively empty, so she caught site of the bright red hair of Reno right away. She made her way over to the table. Rude and Tseng were there too.

"Elena, glad to see you could join us." Reno said lazily, he looked tired. "Boss, did we haffta meet so _early_?" He whined.

Tseng fixed him with a glare, however Reno didn't seem to notice or acknowledge it. "Anyway Elena, I'm glad to see that you decided to accept our invitation. We'll get started on the third test as soon as possible." Tseng said. She sat down between Rude and Reno, Tseng directly across from her. "Now, Elena you are going to be going on a 'practice mission' you don't have to worry about being in danger, as Reno and Rude will be accompanying you." He looked her in the eyes, seeing if she had questions. She had a lot of questions but she was sure that they would not be answered, so she kept her mouth shut. "Now, Rude will explain what you are doing on the way there." He finished and handed the bald-headed man a file.

"When will be leaving?" Elena asked.

"Right now dollface." Reno said with a smirk.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: **OK, I'm on an updating rampage here... this chapters a little different coz Le Pecore is not here!! Her computer is being repaired, and I was gonna wait for her to to come back till I put this up... but she seems to have disappeared off the face of the planet!! I'm sure she'll turn up eventually, and any mistakes she spots that I didn't will be corrected.

I don't own the songs in this chapter, don't remind me -- and to those of you who have read my other stories, the second song I used is completley coincidental -- if you know what it is anyway XD

Enjoy!!!

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Chapter 6

Elena watched as the redhead beside her shifted slightly in his seat. How anyone could be asleep against the racket the helicopter was making was beyond her. She looked at Rude who ignored her, concentrating on his helicopter piloting. Reno muttered something in his sleep that sounded something like "kill him and take his bitch…" and shifted again, this time kicking Elena quite hard in the leg as he did so.

"Ow!" Elena cried, reaching down to rub her ankle. "Reno!"

"Huh?" he woke up abruptly and looked at Elena blankly, "What?"

"Stay awake will you?" she sounded slightly peeved as she carried on rubbing her bruised ankle.

"Oh, sorry…." He muttered. "Hey, Rude? How far have we got?"

"Just shut it Reno, we've got ages left yet."

"Oh ok…." He looked around as if trying to find someone else to annoy, and Elena swiftly started to wish she hadn't woken the red-head up. He gazed out of the window and started singing something under his breath, Elena watched him until he turned around grinning, when she turned away, slightly embarrassed.

"_You know you want it, the thing that makes me…" _Reno carried on singing, slightly louder this time, Elena blushed slightly. _"What the guys go crazy for…"_

"Huh?" Elena said, confused. She looked at Rude who seemed to be trying not to smile.

"_They loose their minds, the way I wind, I think it's time…"_

Elena stared at the red-head with interest, he was now singing even louder with a slightly maniacal look on his face.

"_La-la-la-la-la, warm it up, la-la-la-la-la, the boys are waiting…"_

"Reno please shut up!" Elena said, as politely as she could manage.

"_My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard, they're like: it's better than yours. Damn right it's better than yours… I can teach you but I have to charge…"_

Elena couldn't help it this time, she burst out laughing. She heard Rude laugh lightly next to her, Reno grinned even wider and carried on singing.

"_I can see you're on it, you want me to teach the techniques that freak these boys. It can't be bought, just know, thieves get caught, watch if your smart."_

"OK Reno, seriously, shut up." Elena said, rolling her eyes.

"Only 'cause you know it's true." Reno said, he wasn't singing but he still had the slightly crazy grin on his face

"Wha-what?" Elena stuttered.

"_My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard, their like: it's better than yours. Damn right, it's better than yours, I could teach you but I have to charge."_

"Reno?" Rude piped up, "If you can pull more guys than Elena, it's nothing to be proud of."

"What?" Reno said, the grin being temporarily wiped off his face. He looked at Elena, who laughed. "I ain't gay!"

"That's not what you've just been singing…"

"Shut it." Reno scowled. He looked back out of the window, and began humming the tune instead, tapping his foot on the floor. Elena put her head in her hands, wishing for this journey to be over. Suddenly she heard something hit the window, looking up she heard it was raining heavily.

"_You had my heart, and we'll never be worlds apart, I may be in magazines, but you'll still me my star. Baby 'cause in the dark, you can't see shiny cars, and that's when you need me there, with you I'll always share, because…"_

"Reno!" Elena said, clenching her fist together to try and stop herself from punching him.

"_When the sun shines, we'll shine together, told you I'll be here forever, said I'll always be your friend…"_

He stopped briefly and grinned at Elena. She shook her head, was he trying to get her to hit him?

"_Now that it's raining more than ever, know that we'll still have each other, you can stand under my umbrella, ella, ella, eh, eh, eh, under my umbrella…"_

Elena couldn't stand any more, she looked at Rude and said pleadingly, "Please. Kill him or kill me…" Rude didn't reply, just smiled to himself.

"_Oh baby, it's raining, oh baby it's raining…"_

"RENO!"

He looked at her, smirking, "It's okay, it's stopped raining now…"

"Good…"

Reno once again turned to the window, humming absently to himself. Elena growled quietly and looked again at Rude. He shook his head.

"You'd better get used to it…"

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**A/N: **I really do love the way this turned out :D I sing Umbrella everytime it rains and it really peeves everyone off XD 


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: **FINALLY!! WOOT! Let's celebrate! Le Pecore Nere is back and here is her long-awaited, amazing chapter! It seems she has caught the -short chapter- disease though, well read and review!

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**Chapter 7**

Finally after what seemed to be eternity the chopper landed. Elena stepped out the helicopter and onto land.

"It's 'bout time we arrived." Reno said stretching and yawning.

"Where are we?" Elena asked.

"Costa del Sol, where do ya think?" Reno said.

Elena looked around her. It was not as large as Midgar; it had many colored houses and buildings enough to give her a headache upon landing.

"So," Reno said elbowing her, "Fun ride, huh?"

She sighed, "No."

He grinned, and ran to catch up with Rude who was already heading toward the hotel. She followed after.

* * *

The hotel was bright and all of the clerks were annoyingly cheerful. But its position was off at the far corner of the city, so it was less conspicuous. They checked in and settled. It wasn't long before there came a knock on the door. She got up and answered it, and there was Reno.

"Hey 'Lena, Rude wants to go over plans." He said boredly.

"Ok." She got up and followed him. They headed down to a café across the street.

It was a small place, not many people went in and out. They entered and Rude was already sitting at a booth waiting for them. They both took a seat, and Rude cleared his throat.

"So, what's the big scoop?" Reno asked.

"There was a crate stolen that was supposed to go straight to the Shinra science department." Rude said

"Why should we care?" Reno said.

"It's our job to get the crate back and arrest the people who stole it." Rude said blankly.

"Sounds easy enough." Reno replied cockily

"…"

"Well when do we get started?" Elena asked.

"Now." Rude told her.

"Oh right, well let's search the town first, I'll take the east section." Reno said

"You only want that section because it has all the food stands." Rude sighed.

Reno just grinned and shrugged. "So?"

"…Anyway, Elena, you'll go with Reno and check out the North and East section."

"Ok." Elena said, slightly nervous about the mission, but she did her best to hide it.

Reno started to protest.

"Get going while it's still day time."

"You're starting to sound like Tseng." Reno said

"…"

* * *

Reno collapsed onto the couch in the deserted lounge. They had asked everyone and searched everywhere, but nothing came up.

"I'm sooo hungry." Reno moaned.

"Where's Rude?" Elena asked, but she found that she was also hungry.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: **M'kay, this is my chapter muhahahaha... sorry for the delays between these chapters, the excuse this time is that i didn't even know i hadn't put this up. Well, enjoy!**

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**Chapter 8**

"You okay, 'Laney? You look kinda… sad." Reno said lazily. He had not moved for about an hour, despite constant moans of being hungry.

"I'm fine, Reno. It's just, all happening a little too fast, that's all."

"Oh, well, you never had to say yes."

"I know… in fact sometimes I wonder why I did."

"You ain't gonna leave are you?" Reno said, he sat up properly, looking stunned.

"No… no, I'm not. I just… I'm gonna go for a walk around town, okay? Just to clear my head…"

"Ok…"

"I'll take you'll want to stay there?" She asked him. Reno stared at her blankly. "This is my room, remember?"

"Oh, yeah. Well I'll go if you want me too…"

"No, it's ok. See you later."

Elena walked out the hotel they were staying at. Now it was getting dark, it wasn't so bad, but the garish colors of the town made her feel slightly dizzy. There weren't as many people around now as there was earlier, and it was starting to cool down slightly, compared to the hot day they had just been through. Elena smiled unconsciously to herself. She didn't really understand the feeling she had, she had been certain she didn't actually want this job, yet there was something that was making her desperately cling onto it. Something that was making her want to stay…

She jumped as her cell phone started ringing loudly. Pulling herself together, she pulled it out and answered.

"Hello?"

"Hey, 'Laney…" Came Reno's voice, "I'm gonna order room service, you want anything? I know these guys get pretty pissy if you call them out more than once…"

"No, thanks Reno. I'm alright."  
"You sure?"

"Yes, certain."

"Oh… umm, you know when you're gonna be back? Rude was askin' me…"

"Umm, I don't know, but I won't be long."

"Ok, see ya later 'Laney."

"Bye."

Elena snapped her cell phone shut and put it back into her pocket, once again smiling to herself. That Reno certainly was an odd character… she had never met anyone like him before. The kind of person that could annoy the hell out of you, and be the one your parents wanted you to bring home, all at once. Wait… why was she thinking that? She couldn't deny that the Turk was very good-looking, but she didn't feel that way… did she?

She shook her head. This was no time to be thinking things like that, she had a job the do, and she needed to do her very best to impress Tseng. Any thoughts like that could wait until afterwards. This was the kind of job that she had to be efficient in, and not let anything else cross her mind while she was working… although she wasn't quite sure where she had gotten that impression from, Reno certainly hadn't given it to her after all. She hadn't known him long and she was already wondering how he managed to hold down that job. He seemed experienced in what he did… but his lack of professionalism was… well, she was surprised Tseng put up with him. She guessed there was a reason he did put up with it, and she didn't expect to find out for a long time. Until that time came, she would just have to persever with Reno, and understand that not everyone is… the same.

With this thought still in mind, she looked at her watch. It getting late and it was starting to get rather dark. Smiling to herself, she headed back to the hotel.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: **WOW! We updated quickly this time XD This chapter is by Le Pecore Nere, who has finally managed to something over 500 words lol

Enjoy!

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**Chapter 9**

Elena headed up to the hotel and walked up to her room. '_I wonder if Rude ever made it back…'_ she thought to herself, it was odd, even though it was her first time with them, she couldn't help but getting a feeling that his absence was peculiar. She found herself in front of Reno's room and knocked. A small groan reached her ears.

"Who is it?" Reno drawled, he sounded beat.

"It's Elena. Can I come in?" She asked.

"Yeah." She heard the sound of him shuffling around. The door creaked open and she gasped.

"Reno!" She exclaimed. Before her were stacks of plates, all of which had remains of food on them. "What'd you do? That's got to cost LOADS of money!" Reno laughed.

"Calm down 'Laney-"

"Don't call me 'Laney."

"It's just food." He continued, as if she hadn't spoken.

"Yeah but-"

"Relax, it all goes on the tabs."

"But-"

"Which Shin-Ra pays for." She sighed, it seemed like a mess followed this man everywhere he went. Besides food smears on the plate, there was food on the floor, walls, and somehow the ceiling.

She sighed in frustration. Reno grinned.

"I'm betting you didn't come in here to bother little ol' me." He said, quickly changing the subject.

Elena cleared her throat. Rude. "Reno, shouldn't Rude be back?" She asked.

"He called about an hour ago." He said, shrugging his shoulders. Amazingly, Elena found that that didn't help.

"…and?"

"And nothing, said something about checking the docks. That's probably what he's doing right now."

"Does it usually take this long?"

"Aww, is 'Laney worried about Rude?" Reno asked in a sing-song voice.

"No." Elena said and blushed. "I just-"

"I know, I'm just pushing your buttons. We'll give him another 20 minutes before we do anything you know, stupid." Reno said and winked at her.

"Alright so we wait for a half hour." Elena said.

"Question 'Laney, you would shoot at someone if they ever pointed a gun at you right?"

"Yes, of course." Elena said. What a silly question, of _course_ she would, right? Well rather she _hoped_ would. She shook her head. She could tell it was going to be a long half hour of waiting.

* * *

It hadn't even been a half hour before Reno stood suddenly saying "I can't wait anymore." He grabbed his EMR

"Reno! Wait." Elena started, she didn't think it was a good idea for anyone to go running off.

"Rude might be in trouble, rule number 1 don't leave a fellow Turk behind." Reno said, waiting for her to get ready. "I know good old president says 'each for themselves' but that's not the way it works around here."

Elena only nodded, she grabbed her gun, she understood. They left the building, and made their way over to the docks. It was getting very late, however the noise and bright colors didn't die down. There was a tang of salt in the air as they got closer, Elena could only hope that things were ok.

They turned a few more corners, and all the noise died down and they arrived at a more closed area. The rolling ocean was before her, something she had never seen in person. It was peaceful.

Reno shook his head, no sign of Rude. "Maybe he went to go check the boats. You take that half, and I'll take that one." He said, pointing to the left.

"Right." She said, and moved down the slippery dock. She had one hand on the gun, the other by her side. She hoped she didn't have to use the gun. It had become dark really fast. 'Calm down, it won't do you good, to get nervous now.' She thought and took a deep breath.

She went through each little dock area, looking for any sign of Rude. She had arrived at the very last docking area, before she was to return. Faint but clear noises reached her ears. Her heart beat faster, she drew her gun. 'Maybe it's just an animal of some sort.' She thought to herself. She shakily looked between all the boats. She reached the end, and the noises became much more clear. It sounded like someone or something moving stuff around. As she advanced, the noises stopped. She stopped moving. 'Don't let it be something I can't get out of please.' She thought to herself.

Just then a shadow jumped out from a boat. She felt a scream rise in her throat, and the shadow moved closer, and took shape of a person. She gripped the gun harder.

"Identify yourself." She said, hoping her voice was sterner than she felt. The shadow moved closer. She raised the gun.


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: **Sorry about the long wait, I ended up making a mistake again ; Anyway, this is my chapter - hope you enjoy!!**

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**Chapter 10 **

Elena felt the cold trigger beneath her fingers; she was preparing herself to pull it. Then, she was immediately glad she hadn't, when the person in front of her stepped forwards, where she could clearly see it was Rude.

"Hey, hey, hey 'Laney." Reno said, stepping up behind her. She felt his hand on her shoulder. "I dunno if it's a written rule or what, but you don't point a gun at a team member… it's not a good way to be sociable."

"I'm so sorry…" Elena said quietly, her heart was beating at an extraordinary rate, and she could hear her pulse in her head. "I just…"

"Nah, it's ok. You're on your toes, stayin' alert. Nobody's gonna get at ya for that." Reno told her, he lifted his hand off Elena's shoulder and looked at Rude. "Ya find anythin', partner?"

"I think we should check this place out again tomorrow." Rude said. Somehow, Elena was relieved to hear his husky voice, as though proving to herself that is really was him.

"What ya found?" Reno asked casually.

"Nothing yet, but people around here have been suspicious of this part of the docks for a while apparently."

"Why's that?"

"Nobody I've asked is really sure; this part's been off limits to civilians for a while now."

"Ok, sure." Reno shrugged his shoulders, "We'll check it out tomorrow."

"It's not going to be anything dangerous, is it?" Elena piped up.

"No, 'Laney, don't worry yourself. This is your first mission; we don't want you murdered before we've even given you a real job." He grinned, making Elena slightly uncomfortable.

"Did I ever tell you, you suck at making people feel better?" Rude said, walking past him. Reno looked slightly shocked for a minute, and then followed him, Elena at his heels.

* * *

When they re-entered the hotel, Elena went straight to her own room. From the look on Reno's face, he was beat, and definitely ready for sleep. Elena walked down the corridor on her own; unable to shake that jumpy feeling she had in her heart, like she was expecting something bad to happen. She just put that feeling down to the events of the day; she had been shaken up quite a few times.

* * *

Elena opened her eyes, ignoring the blinding light from the window. Looking at her alarm clock, she saw it was 8:30am. Probably time to get up. It didn't take her long to get up, washed and dressed, and then she made her way down to Reno and Rude's room.

For some reason, Elena was hesitant about entering Reno and Rude's room, so she knocked anyway.

"Come in." she heard Rude's voice from within. She turned the door handle and opened it, revealing Rude sitting on his bed, and Reno on a bed across the other side of the room, seemingly asleep.

"Shouldn't he...?" Elena began.

"Leave him." Rude interrupted. Elena nodded and sat down next to Rude, still looking over at Reno. He looked like a different person when he was asleep, it was quite funny. All the usual arrogance he had etched into his features and the sly smirk that was usually on his face when he was awake was gone, replaced by an innocence of some sort. Elena slapped herself mentally when she found she struggled to tear her gaze away from the redhead.

"We can't do anything till he wakes up." Rude said bluntly, nodding in Reno's direction. Elena looked at him questioningly.

"Why don't you just wake him up?" She asked.

"Try if you want." Rude said, giving Elena a rare smile. "You'd probably have more luck waking up someone that's been dead for 5 years. Even if you did manage, he'd be in a bad mood, and you do _not _want to go on a mission with Reno in a bad mood."

Elena stared at Rude briefly. The news of Reno's sleeping habits was not so shocking; he seemed that kind of person, but that was the longest sentence she had heard Rude say since they met. He was starting to come across as the kind of person who really had a lot to say, but preferred to leave Reno do the talking, when he obviously enjoyed it more.

"What's the matter?" Rude asked.

"Oh nothing… just thinking…" Elena said. She really had been doing a lot of thinking lately; about Reno, about the Turks, and about her life in general… all the while trying to come up with an answer. The only problem was, she still wasn't sure what the question was.


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: **You guys are lucky I remembered to put this up, coz I nearly forgot - I have serious issues with short term memory...

anymoo, this great chappie is by Le Pecore Nere... I haven't checked if she wanted me to put this up yet, but I'm sure she'll get over it.

Enjoy!

**

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Chapter 11**

There were a lot of things Elena hated. She hated waiting in the doctor's office, she hated waiting for her sister to stop by, she hated waiting in line. But of all the things, waiting for Reno to wake up had to be the most boring. There wasn't even a complementary magazine for her to divulge in. She sighed, tracing her shoe again for what seemed like the hundredth time that hour. She glanced at her watch. It was already 8:30 in the morning.

"I'm going to go get a cup of coffee, want some?" She said, standing.

"No I'm good." Rude said.

"Coffee? Sounds good to me." Reno said, stirring.

"It's about time." She said, exasperated.

"Can you grab a lot of creams and sugars?" He asked with a grin.

She rolled her eyes and turned to leave. "Hey 'Laney?" He said, she turned back to him.

"What?"

"Thanks for the coffee." She chuckled and left, the room feeling abnormally hot.

She returned with the hot coffee, one of the things in the morning that were good for Elena.

"Well, we still have a lot of work to-"

"Gee settle down 'Laney some of us just woke up." Reno said, pouring sugar after sugar into his coffee. Rude smirked at him.

"Ok I'm ready now." Reno said after about the 20th sugar packet and cream.

"Ok, good. We need to get those crates." Elena said.

"Thank you Captain Obvious. Its simple ol' Rude here says the docks are suspicious, so to the docks we go." Reno said, nodding wisely.

"Is that it?"

"If the crates aren't there, then we have to search elsewhere." Rude said.

"And what if the crates are there?"

"Then we're done here." Reno said "So let's hope it's there, because Costa del Sol is fun and all, but it gets to be boring after a while."

* * *

So after getting ready, Elena found herself standing before the large docks of Costa del Sol. At one dock – and one ship in particular. On the ship, called the "Vitamin Sea" had some rather large crates on board, and of course it was the one they were looking for.

"Hey what're you doing on my ship?" A voice asked from behind them, making her jump.

"I think the question is, what are our crates doing on your ship?" Reno said, holding his EMR.

"Those aren't yours." The man said. He was tall, with brown hair and glasses "Those are mine."

"The hell they are, see this?" He pointed to the Shin-Ra logo "This says it belongs to us, and we're confiscating it and arresting you."

Two other guys appeared behind him. Reno grinned maniacally.

"A fight you want eh? A fight you'll get." He said charging forward, swinging the EMR.

Rude ran forward and began fighting a rather pig-looking guy. Reno fought the obvious leader, the ship owner, and that left Elena with a hulking behemoth . He pulled out a knife and grinned.

"Don't worry sweetie, I'll go easy on you." He said, licking his lips. Elena felt disgust ripple through her spine. He edged forward; she stepped back, and pulled out her gun, unsure of how to use it.

He chuckled at her. "Such a big gun for a small lady. Put it down before you hurt yourself."

She squeezed her eyes and let off two shots. She opened an eye, and saw the man on the ground, groaning. She felt shaky, she actually shot someone. She glanced over at Reno and Rude to see how they were doing. Rude's was finishing off his guy. Reno was struggling however, the guy held a knife over Reno's head, pushing down. Reno was trying to move the guy.

"Laney, shoot him." Reno shouted. She aimed the gun, but she didn't fire. The two were too close together; she didn't want to risk shooting Reno.

"Shoot him Elena!" Reno repeated, the knife inching closer. Reno slipped down, the guy he was fighting toppled down onto him. Rude came up behind them and grabbed the man and threw him to the ground, cracking his knuckles, the man gasped, and scrabbled away. Elena ran up to Reno, who was still on the floor. The hard boat floor was growing red with blood. She started blurting out apologies. She should have shot the guy, he wouldn't have gotten away. She should've shot him.

Reno chuckled. "Laney, shut up." Rude knelt down beside him. He pulled out a cell phone, calling an ambulance. Elena shook her head, her vision blurring.

"Laney, don't cry. Mission accomplished." He chuckled again. "Got the crate, got the bad guy. All in a days work. And think about it, this is a good scar to show off to the ladies." He winked. She laughed. "You're such a noob." He said and passed out.

The red lights flashed on the docks, sparkling in the water, it pulled silently away, with Reno in the back.

"He'll be fine." Rude said. It was simple, but it was enough for Elena, because those were just the words she needed to hear.


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: **chapter by me... i cant remember how long its been since I updated this, so sorry if its been a while

Enjoy

**

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Chapter 12**

Elena sat in the reception, waiting for Rude to come back. She kept replaying the last events in their mission, and felt her eyes burning hot with tears as she did so. It was her fault, and she knew it. She should have just shot the man, even if she had hit Reno, he would have still been in for a chance.

"Elena?" she looked up to see Rude approaching her. "We're not even allowed in." he sighed sitting next to her.

"Why not?"

"They're trying to stabilize him." Rude said, altering his sunglasses. "They don't want anyone in there just yet."

"Stabilize him?" Elena asked, her eyes wide, "Does that mean..?"

"The guy managed to do quite a bit of damage apparently."

Elena looked at Rude. Despite his sunglasses, she could see the immense worry in his eyes that she had never seen before. She understood of course; she had no idea how long they had been partners for, but they must be very good friends by now.  
"Do you think he'll be ok?" Elena asked in an attempt to break the silence.

"Yeah." Rude said immediately. "He's been in worse states than this."

"Worse? Like what?" Elena asked curiously.

"Well, once he was declared legally dead for a whole 5 minutes."

"He died?" Elena said, her voice slightly higher than usual.

"Well, his heart stopped, and he wasn't breathing…" Rude said quietly. It must have been quite strange for him to be actually talking this much.

"When was that?" Elena asked him.

"He was let out about three days before you came for your first test." Rude told her.

"Really? He must sure be a fighter…" Elena trailed off, looking at the white ceiling above her. "So if you're so convinced he'll make it, why do you look so worried?" she asked, breaking the silence again.

"Because the doctors here know he's from Shinra. They remember him from last time." Rude said, looking down.

"So?"

"They messed up his treatment every time he's been here. They ended up making him worse. Tseng's on his way here now, and as soon as Reno's stable, Tseng'll pull him out of here, and back to the Shinra infirmary."

* * *

Time seemed to fly by, and before Elena knew it, she was back at the Shin-Ra headquarters, waiting for Tseng to come back after sorting Reno out. She really couldn't believe that the hospitals would do something like that to someone. But then again, Rude wouldn't be lying, he wouldn't waste his breath to tell Elena a blatant lie. Maybe she was just too young; too inexperienced to understand the hatred a normal person can have of a Turk. Of course she knew that the job of a Turk was not an approved one, but to actually put someone through that amount of pain, it was misuse of a highly valued position in society, and no doctor had the right to do it.

"Sorry if I had you worried there 'Laney." a voice came from the doorway. Elena looked up quickly and saw Reno standing there, smiling at her. His shirt was unbuttoned and Elena could see the bandages that covered his wound. Suddenly she felt another familiar pang of guilt. Although he was smiling, his face was even paler than usual, and he looked somewhat delicate.

"Don't look so bad." He said, walking slowly up to her.

"How are you up? They spent about 3 hours trying to stabilize you. You can't have been awake for more than 10 minutes." Elena said disbelievingly.

"Meh, Tseng doesn't know I'm outta bed. But he'll get over it. I'm fine really; worst of it's over with now eh?" Reno grinned at her.

"You must be tougher than you look… much tougher." Elena said. She couldn't stop herself from smiling at Reno's shocked expression.

"What's that s'posed to mean?" he said, crossing his arms.

"Oh nothing…" Elena rolled her eyes. "Are you sure you're alright?"

Elena stared at him, a pained expression had come to his eyes, and he seemed to stop breathing for a minute.

"Yeah… great…" he wheezed.

"Reno!?" Elena heard Tseng shout from outside. "What the hell do you think you're doing? Get back to the infirmary now!"

"Oh crap…" Reno sighed. He made to step backwards, but stumbled slightly and fell, just in time for Tseng to catch him and stopping him from hitting his head on the wall.

"You idiot…" Tseng muttered. He hauled Reno over his back and carried him off back to the infirmary. Elena wasn't sure if he was conscious or not, but Tseng didn't seem like the kind of person to willingly carry him for no reason. Elena sighed; she really had no idea how Reno had gotten all the way over there in the first place. All this did was emphasize the decision she had come to a long time ago; Reno was certainly an interesting man.


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: **Woo a chapter lol. My attention span has gone even worse than what it usually is today (first day back at school) So sorry if I missed any mistakes or anything. Chapter by Le Pecore Nere, by the way XD

Enjoy

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**Chapter 13**

One thing Elena learned when she was young to follow directions. But this was ridiculous.

"So I'm supposed to do all of this paperwork?" Elena asked, ogling the enormous pile of papers on the desk.

"That's right 'Laney. Since you're new, you have to learn how to do this kind of thing. So I figured, why not?" Reno said with a grin. Elena shook her head. She knew she was supposed to do it, but it seemed like so much work, just for one job.

"But, shouldn't you help me?" Elena asked resolutely. Surely he didn't expect her to be able to do all of that by herself. She didn't even expect herself to be able to do all of that.

It had been a few days after the job, and Reno's injury, but he refused to stay in the hospital. But he also refused to do any real work, much to Tseng's annoyance.

Reno continued to grin at her. "Well you see 'Laney, the way I figure is that you're a big girl, you can take care of yourself. But if you get stuck on the legal issues just ask Rude, he knows more about it than me."

The other thing is that Tseng had Reno supervise Elena, and her training. The way Reno put it was that she couldn't fight her way out of a wet paper bag, so he oversaw her training, and everything else. Not that she much minded having Reno around.

"But then what will you be doing?" She asked there couldn't be other "important" things to be done besides paperwork, unless of course, visiting the coffee machine counted.

"Now don't question your supervisor, that's no way to start a new job." He countered. "Besides, post-poning the inevitable won't make it disappear, so start now and I'll check up on you in a little bit." He said, grabbing his coat and walking out the door, leaving Elena with the stack of papers and a pen. With a defeated sigh, Elena got to work and she experienced the long and tedious hours of paperwork.

* * *

Elena felt like cutting her wrist off. Maybe that was overly-dramatic, but she had signed so many papers over the hour, and answered so many questionnaires, she felt like if she didn't cut her wrist off, it'd fall off. She looked at the stack of papers, although she had done a lot, it didn't appear like she had done anything at all, because the stack still seemed the same size when she started. She pushed away from the desk, and decided it was time for a break.

'_Oh the wonders of coffee.'_ Elena thought to herself while she fixed herself a cup.

She sat down on surprisingly comfortable couch in the break room. She sipped her coffee allowing her mind to wander aimlessly. Suddenly she found herself walking down memory lane.

_Her sister had just gotten home. She hadn't been home for days, and Elena began to worry. She sat in the living room, nervously biting her nails. She noticed the subtle way her sister tried to cover up a limp._

"_Where were you?" She asked, trying to sound angry instead of worried._

"_That's none of your business." Her sister said crossly._

"_It is if you aren't home, and when you are, you always ignore me and mom." She said, crossing her arms._

"_Look I'm getting the job done. Besides, it puts food on the table and heat in the house, so why should you care?"_

_Elena could only watch as her sister stormed up the stairs to her room. She didn't know why she argued with her, it was fruitless. It always ended with Elena still sitting on the couch into the wee hours of the morning, and her sister leaving again for days at a time._

Elena sighed, she realized now why her sister had always been gone. From what she had heard from the others, her sister had actually been very good at her job. She was just glad that she was nothing like her. No, she wouldn't disappear for days, not at least without contacting her mother. She wouldn't be heartless, or cruel, or self-centered. No she would care for others. She wasn't her sister, and she would make sure of that.

"Laney, there you are. Slacking on the job eh?" Reno said suddenly emerging from the door.

"Sorry. I was taking a break." She said, forcing her mind to return back to reality.

"Well would you hurry geez, I've been waiting behind the door for hours for you to come back."

"I wasn't _that_ long. And what were you doing behind the door?" She asked curiously, or maybe she didn't want to know.

"I was going to jump out from behind and scare you, what else do you do behind a door?" He said grinning sheepishly.

She rolled her eyes, and finished her coffee. She stood, Reno still jabbering in her ear, and returned to her paperwork. She could get used this job…


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: **I FINALLY got up to putting this up. Sorry about the long wait, it would have been sooner if had worked properly **

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**Chapter 14**

Elena had found it difficult to get the memories of her sister out of her head that day. There was something bugging her about it, something odd about the way these memories were planted in her head.

"I think you should have started the job around someone other than me." Reno's distinctive voice said, bringing her back down to earth. Elena looked at him; not for the first time, she was not sure if he was being serious or not.

"What?" Elena enquired, putting her pen down.

Reno pointed at the paperwork. "You've turned lazy." He smiled.

"Oh… that." Elena looked down. She was trying to hide her sad mood, but she was never good at hiding emotions. As her sister always told her, she wore her heart on her sleeve.

"Don't worry about it." Reno shot her a lopsided grin. "I won't tell if you won't."

Elena couldn't help but smile. For some reason she felt her face reddening slightly as well. There was something about the strange smile on the red heads face that made Elena feel happy.

"Wait a minute…" Elena said, "What are _you _doing?"

"Me?" Reno looked momentarily slightly offended. "I'm doin' my job sweetheart."

"You're standing there." The blonde said bluntly.

"Ah, it looks like I'm just standing here, but you need to look deeper into that one. I'll leave you to ponder on it, 'kay?"

At that, he left Elena's office without giving her a chance to reply. However, even if he had have given her a chance, she wouldn't have known what to say anyway. He was certainly a strange card. She wondered vaguely if anyone who worked her understood him, or did they just let him get on with it? The only person who seemed to have come close to understanding him was Rude, but she guessed that would have taken years of work to get their partnership like that. He seemed like an extraordinary person however, so was it worth working him out?

Partnership… that got Elena thinking again. She was thoroughly enjoying working with Reno, but she knew that he and Rude were partners. What would happen when Elena was fully broken in as a Turk? Would she be left alone?

Elena sighed and picked her pen up again, deciding it was time to get to work, because really, when she thought about it, she wasn't happy about the idea of being compared to Reno.

* * *

"Coffee break." came a loud voice from the doorway. No need to even check who that was. Elena looked at her watch, seeing it was 4 o'clock. She could not see the point in a coffee break half an hour before they were due to go home, but she guessed this was just Reno's way of getting out of the last half an hour of work.

Elena looked up as the red head came in, carrying 2 cups of coffee. She smiled and took one from him.

"How ya doin'?" Reno asked, pointing to the papers.

"Nearly finished." Elena said, taking a sip of her coffee. It was slightly bitter, but for some reason, she liked it.

"Wow." Reno said. "Good for you. Ya know, I still got papers on my desk that have been there since the first day I was here…"

"How long ago was that?" Elena asked him.

"Uh… years ago… I dunno… I joined when I was 15." Reno said. Elena was amused by the thoughtful look on his face.

"How old are you now?"

"…22." Reno said. For some reason he sounded slightly unsure.

"22?" Elena repeated, shocked. She hadn't really thought about his age before, but if someone would have asked her to guess, she would have said 19 at the most. Maybe it was his hair, or his eyes… or his smooth porcelain skin, but he had that innocent look about him that only came with youth.

"Shocked, eh?" Reno said, laughing. "Probably malnutrition or somethin'."

"What?" Elena said. She knew what he meant, but she didn't know why he said it.

"Nothin'." The redhead glanced at the clock on the wall. "Hey, it's time to go."

Elena looked at her watch, and indeed, it was half past 4. Elena smiled to herself; this man was extraordinary. However far-fetched and ridiculous his logic seemed, things always seemed to go his way.


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: **Le Pecore Nere's chapter. I don't know when I'll get around to doing mine though, I have a lot to update at the moment, and a lot of school work 

Well, enjoy**

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**Chapter 13**

Elena walked home that day, trying to keep her mind off of a certain red-head. (her mind seemed to be wandering to him a lot lately). Instead, she thought about the bills she hadn't paid, the mess she didn't clean, and the dishes she hadn't washed. She sighed and walked faster, yet her mind inevitably wandered back to Reno again. Her mind bringing back the way he's smirk at her with that lazy grin. She thought about how he had to be the laziest person she knew, and she wondered briefly how he managed to keep his job. She couldn't help but smile when she remembered his trip to the hospital.

* * *

"_C'mon 'Laney just one?" He whined to her again._

"_No Reno." She refused his request to get him some junk food._

"_Please? I promise I won't ask you for anything else…" He looked at her with a puppy dog expression, and although as best she tried, she couldn't resist it._

"_Ok, but I don't want to take the fall for you." He was so much like a kid at times, it annoyed her. The scene from the docks flashed in her eyes, the way Reno had charged forward, unafraid. She wondered why he put up such a façade. She also wondered (for maybe the millionth time) why she did what he asked her too. _

"_Thanks 'Laney." He said as she left the room to the vending machine._

* * *

As the memory fondly re-ran itself through her mind one more time, she realized that she wanted to be able to charge forward like that, unafraid of the circumstances ahead. Her sister would only laugh at her if she told her of such thoughts, because in her words, she was as frightening as a ferocious bunny. She would prove her sister wrong, she would become a full-blooded Turk, and fight her way through anything that stood in her way. She didn't have anything to be afraid of, after all, she had someone like Reno who backed her up, and his unfathomable partner, Rude. She walked now with a renewed confidence, she felt like the world was at her feet.

That was until she got home, and felt dreadfully tired instead of confident.

* * *

Elena found herself sitting in Tseng's office. They were waiting for Reno to arrive, and just on cue, he showed up with a cup of coffee in hand.

Tseng cleared his throat as Reno sat down on the chair next to her.

"Yes, now that you've arrived, I've got something important for you to do." Tseng said formally, shuffling his papers.

"Oh yeah?" Reno asked, slouched in the chair.

"Yes, I've got a mission for the both of you." Elena could feel an odd mixture of excitement and fear course through her. Would the new mission be hard? Exciting? Were they going anywhere important? Would she get hurt? Would someone else get hurt? How would things work out?

"The two of you are going to capturing an escaped scientist." Tseng said, and handed the file over to Reno. "All of the information necessary to the mission is in there. You are both expected to depart tomorrow night." He turned and looked at Elena "You'll be needing to pack clothes and other things you might need, last we heard, he was in Bone Village. We fear he has escaped into the Sleeping Forest. It's an easy mission, it could turn bad, but I trust that you'll do your best."

Reno simply glanced at the file then gave it to Elena. She looked down dumbly at the pile of words and pictures in the manila folder. She couldn't quite grasp the point that this was her first mission. It wasn't a practice mission, like the one at Costa Del Sol. This was a real one, they weren't trying to figure out her abilities, they were putting them to the test. She prayed silently to whoever was above, that she wouldn't mess this mission up.

"Elena, I need to have a talk with Reno, alone." Tseng said, knocking out her thoughts.

"Oh, okay." She said, and excused herself. Not knowing what to do with herself, she sat down on the couch in the break room. Her mind wandered away again without her permission.

* * *

_Elena sat in a room. The whites of the wall made her mind feel like it was spinning. She didn't understand why she had to be here. She had asked her mother why they were here, but her mother only pursed her lips shut and stared blankly ahead. She had asked her sister, who kindly told her to shut up, now wasn't the time for stupid questions. This had hurt, and she wanted to make a retort, but the look on both her mother's and sister's faces told her that right now was indeed not the time for her to be asking questions. The only time she could ever remember her mother being so serious was when Grammy died. She wondered briefly what caused her mother to look so serious again. _

_A man came out, wearing a white coat that was comically too big for him. If it were any other occasion, she might have laughed. But even if she didn't understand why she was here, she did understand that she had to remain quiet. Her mother stood up and walked toward the man in the white coat. She stood to follow, but her sister pulled her back into her seat. She turned and gave her sister an angry face. Her sister just shook her head. She sat on the uncomfortable chair and concentrated on listening. She didn't hear much, she only caught a few words. Words that sounded like "Cardinal arrest." She didn't know what those words meant, and she thought that they were a funny combination. They weren't funny, as her mother began crying. The man in the oversized coat said a few more indiscernible words, and turned and left through the same doors he came in. She began to worry about her mom, who was crying hysterically. She was certain that her father would walk in the room at any moment and console her. But her father never showed up. In fact, she never saw him again after that. No one would tell her where he was, except that he was "in a better place." She thought that meant that he was Castle Park, where she thought was a better place. _

* * *

Of course she was older now, and knew that her father had went into cardiac arrest after being mugged in a street corner. She also knew that her father was now in the lifestream, instead of Castle Park. She glanced at the clock and realized it was time to leave. She pushed the thoughts away and left the building, reminding herself to call her mother when she got home. 


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N: **This chapter was by me, although Le Pecore Nere did the letter for me, coz I suck at stuff like that. I typed all this really quickly, so my wrists hurt now, my brain is too fast for my fingers it would seem XD

Enjoy**

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**Chapter 16**

Elena put the phone down and sighed to herself. She had spoken to her mother in the hope that it would make her feel better, but she had been wrong. If anything, she felt worse. She wasn't even sure why she felt so terrible, but something on her mind was eating away at her like a parasite, and she was pretty sure it was something to do with Gun and her family.

Her mother was all she had left now, and up until that very moment, Elena hadn't thought of the day that Gun's death had reached them. Her mother had been inconsolable, and Elena had been her strength. She never cried a tear, not once, just made sure she was there as a shoulder for her mother to cry on.

_

* * *

They hadn't seen Gun for a few days. Both Elena and her mother had gotten used to it by now. They both knew of her involvement with 'The Department of General Affairs' although neither of them knew exactly what she did there. It was a sunny Sunday afternoon, when Elena went to go out for a walk and she noticed a letter on the floor._

"_To the relative of Trisha 'Gun' Spalinger,_

_We regret to inform you that Trisha "Gun" Spalinger has been in an incident that has taken her life. We are sorry to have to inform you of such news. Please drop by the Shin-Ra Corporation with this letter and a form of identification so we can verify that you are a relative of Trisha "Gun" Spalinger, so we may bring you her body to dispose of in your own fashion. _

_Yours sincerely,_

_ Red"_

_She had not wanted to show her mother the letter, but of course, she wasn't stupid. She would realize something was wrong. Elena took a deep breathe and walked back into her living room and handed her mother the letter._

_She saw her face fall the further down the letter she got. In silence, Elena's mother brushed her blonde hair out of her eyes and handed the letter back to Elena. _

"_Mom?" Elena said quietly. Her mother opened up her arms and pulled Elena into a hug. Elena let her do it, and hugged her back… but the strange thing was she felt nothing for Gun. In fact, she somehow felt she deserved it._

_Recovering Gun's body was one of the hardest things Elena had been through. It wasn't because she was sad for her sister; she was sad for her mother. Tears had been streaming from her mothers blue eyes onto her creamy-skinned cheek all the while she was giving details to the man from Shinra. The man was one of those people that weren't particularly ugly, but it wasn't a face Elena remembered beyond that day. She remembered the people she saw; the blank looks on their faces as they walked past them one after the other. None of them seemed to have any emotion; none of them seemed to care at all. They were all the same…_

* * *

"What the HELL do ya think ya doin'?" A voice practically screamed outside. Elena recognized it as Reno from the slightly nasal quality. Elena felt her heart racing, and instantly regretted once again letting herself fall into a thoughtful stupor.

"Piss off." Reno's voice said, slightly quieter. Elena saw her own door open and the red-head walked in, looking incredibly angry.

"Hey 'Laney." He said, his voice suddenly brightening.

"Don't knock, will you?" Elena said sarcastically. The red-head shot her a sly smile and Elena found herself smiling at him.

He was bright. That was the first thing she had noticed about him. His hair was bright; his eyes were bright, and his personality was bright. He was the oddball that had changed Elena's view on Shinra. At the moment, apart from her mother, Reno was the only person in the world she could trust.

"Anyway…" Reno carried on. "I was just wonderin'… I saw ya in the corridor an' ya looked a bit depressed."

"Oh… I was just thinking." Elena said, smiling at him as he sat down next to her.

"Whatcha thinkin' 'bout?" he asked her.

"My sister." Elena told him. She didn't know why, but she wanted to tell Reno all about it. She knew he would make her feel better. "I just remembered what happened to her."

"Ah, yeah… she was killed on a mission…" Reno said, looking slightly awkward.

Elena brushed her long blonde hair out of her eyes. "You know?"

"Course I know. I'm a Turk, ain't I? So was she… my partner for a while." Reno didn't look sad, but there was some sort of traceable emotion in his eyes.

"Your partner? You mean before Rude?" Elena asked. For some reason, this information scared her.

"Yeah…" The red-head suddenly looked like he didn't want to talk, but Elena didn't care. She wanted to know everything he knew about her sister.

"Reno…" she said, a thought suddenly coming to her head. "Who was 'Red'?"

"Heh…" Reno smiled grimly. "That was me."

"You wrote the letter… why?"

"Tseng was away for a while, so he left me 'in charge' so to speak." Reno said. "Look, do I really have to go through this?"

Elena stared at him unfalteringly and nodded her head.

"Fine." Reno said sighing. "Gun was killed on a mission…"

"Yeah, I know that." Elena said quickly. "How did she die?"

Reno seemed to take forever to answer the question. For the first time since Elena met him, he was lost for words… he seemed to have lost them in a pool of emotion. Eventually, he breathed out heavily.

"I killed her."

_

* * *

They had been separated for about an hour. Reno couldn't find Gun anywhere, and the whole building was dark, since Reno had cut the electricity. That was the only thing he hated about stake-out missions; the fact that for some reason, he always got separated from whoever he was with._

_Gun was the first partner he'd had in a long time. The last one, Rikash… she had been murdered brutally. He and Gun had been partners for three months, and although it looked to anyone else that they hated each others guts, they were starting to form quite a beautiful friendship._

_Reno was worried though. Gun had been in quite a steaming mood before they had gotten separated. Apparently spending an hour poking someone in the back of the head on the way to a mission was not something someone appreciates._

_He could hear footsteps, running quickly, and from the pounding echo, Reno could sense that whoever it was, they were scared. Could it be Gun? Then suddenly the footsteps stopped, and Reno had the strange sense that someone was watching him. Pulling out his gun, he turned around and walked slowly but blindly forwards. He could hear his own footsteps on the floor and his blood rushing through his head._

_Then the other footsteps started again, this time becoming louder and louder, so it was obvious the person was running towards him. Reno crouched slightly, readying himself, and the next thing he knew, he saw a very familiar person running at him. Green eyes filled with intense fear flashed in front of him and she pounced on him. Everything after that seemed to happen at once, and with a swift movement, Reno pulled the trigger on his gun, as though it were a reflex, and Gun fell to the ground._

_Reno breathed out heavily and suddenly became aware of a sharp pain in his back. He crouched, cringing at the increasing burning sensation in his back and pulled a flare out of his pocket and lit it. In the green light, he could see the woman he had just shot, now dead, a knife in her right hand. So she had stabbed him… her green eyes were empty, and staring upwards at the ceiling, as though expecting something to come down and get her, there was a trickle of blood down her now slightly gray skin… Reno looked at the floor…_

* * *

"I never found out why she went crazy…" Reno said quietly.

Elena stared at him. Although she felt hollow inside, it was nothing to how Reno looked. Anyone else telling such a touching tale would probably be crying right now. But not Reno; not one tear fell from his eyes. He looked drawn and gray, as if he had been the one shot, not Gun.

"I'm sorry 'Lena…" He muttered. His heart didn't sound in the apology, but Elena knew he meant it. In silence she moved closer to him and put her arm around his shoulder. He gave in and leaned into her, itching to get the comfort he should have received all that time ago. Elena felt like a mother, nursing a child after a skinned knee, but of course, this wasn't quite as simple to fix.


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N: **Chapter by Le Pecore Nere. Please ignore any mistakes D

Enjoy

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**Chapter 17**

She had stumbled home after work that day. She didn't remember coming home though, but since she obviously had made it home through the slums in (relatively) one piece, she figures that nothing important happened.

She sank down into the too-hard sofa and felt a sadness come over her. She wasn't too sad about her sister, somehow she had always known that this would have happened, but she didn't think it would happen like _that_.

Too many thoughts whirled inside her head and she tried to make sense of them all. Reno had killed her sister. Reno had written the letter. It didn't make sense; she _knew_ that this job was dangerous. But she didn't think things would turn out like this. She didn't think she could ever be strong enough to have to deal with being a Turk. Her sister, who was cold, and very often a-times unloving and not understanding, was strong. She had had what it took to be a Turk. She couldn't do this. Maybe she could quit before it was too late. Before she turned out like her sister, cold and unloving, and all too often not-understanding. Or before she turned out dead.

* * *

"_Oh would you grow up already?" Gun had said to her, after seeing that Elena was crying over her dead dog. Elena wasn't expecting this, and she didn't know what she was expecting her sister to tell her that. So shocked she was, that she forgot to be sad and just stood there, staring at her sister. Sure, Elena wasn't a child anymore, but she was far from being an adult too. Her sister, who seemed to always be way too old for her age, had been grown up at this time in her life, so she figured, why couldn't Elena? "You won't ever get over it if you stand there and cry." Gun continued and walked upstairs._

_Elena still just stood there, stunned._

* * *

No, she wasn't the same person she was so long ago. Gun, who had always sneered at her, reminding her how weak she was. She wasn't that same person, and she was determined to not be that person ever again. 

And there was Reno, who always seemed so full of life, despite –or, perhaps, in spite- his job. She wondered if she could be like that. If she could hold this job, which seemed to be riddled with consequences and pitfalls. Could she hold this job, and still be herself, just like Reno? _Well,_ she thought, _I won't ever know unless I find out._

She would try. She wouldn't be the person her sister always sneered and rebuked. It was time, she thought for a change; so she would change herself.

She stood in front of the mirror, with some scissors. She squeezed her eyes shut and cut of the long flanks of blonde hair, until it was no longer long, but short. She looked at herself, maybe not the _best_ hair cut she's ever gotten, but it was the most liberating. She felt different. She felt better.

* * *

She had everything packed. Feeling strangely excited and nervous, she left her home for the infamous Shin-Ra building. The chopper waited on the vast roof, and it didn't quite surprise her to see that Reno hadn't showed up yet. She must have waited for about fifteen minutes before she heard a - 

"Yo, 'Laney wh-" his mouth fell comically open. "What'd ya do to your hair?" He asked.

"I cut it." She said, subconsciously bringing her hand up to her hair, feeling its strange-yet-comforting shortness.

"Well it looks like your hair met a paper shredder." He said and smirked.

"Thanks." She said pointedly and blinked.

"Nah, I'm just kiddin', but seriously 'Laney, you're the last person I expected to get a 'do." He said and playfully punched her arm.

"Well, now that we're done complimenting Elena's haircut, I think it's time you both headed out now." The stern voice of Tseng spoke up behind them.

"Must be something important if the boss is out to see us off." Reno said. Tseng cleared his throat.

"Well, nothing particularly important, I had forgotten to hand you a report I received yesterday." He replied, handing another manila folder to Elena.

"Wow, mark your calendars kiddos, Tseng forgot something." Reno said with a smirk. Tseng sent him an unheeded glare.

"Yes well, _anyway_ good luck on your mission." He said, and turned heal back down to his office.

"Well, shall we head out ourselves?" Reno said and hopped into the helicopter. She followed suit. It wouldn't have surprised her to find out that this was the same chopper that they had used earlier.

Reno went about flipping controls on the vast control board, and Elena just buckled herself in, she wondered briefly if she would ever pilot something like this, and if it was hard. But she pushed those thoughts out and began to sift through the papers as the helicopter stuttered to life and took off.

* * *

The mission seemed pretty straightforward in the chopper. Just locate the scientist, and bring him back. Simple, that is, until Elena and Reno had touched down in Bone Village. They had gotten a room in the hotel, and Elena began to wonder just where they were going to start. 

"Well, first I think it'd be safe to say the old man ain't here in the village." Reno had told her after she brought it up. "He'd probably hightail into the Forgotten City, so tomorrow we'll start there." He finished.

"But why not today?" She asked.

"You never start a mission right away; you've got to rest up first. You never know when your next night of sleep will be." He said "Besides, who wants turn down spending the day in this wonderful village?" He asked, and she wasn't sure if he was just being cynical, or if he was serious.

Personally she had never seen anywhere outside Midgar, so everything was a new experience to her.


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N: **An ever-so-slightly rushed chapter by me, I don't think it turned out too bad though, I may have gotten lucky

Enjoy

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Chapter 18

Elena sighed as they left the hotel, entering the bright, sunny day. They had managed to get a few hours sleep, but since it was during the day, it was difficult. It became apparent after only a few minutes that Reno was indeed being cynical in his comment about Bone Village. Although Elena herself didn't mind the village, Reno seemed to be on a never-ending quest to annoy Elena in his complaints.

"Look." She said finally, trying to keep her temper. "If you hate this village so much then why don't we just start the mission now?"

"Never said I hated it." Reno replied.

"Well, why don't you stop complaining them?"

"Terribly sorry…" Reno said. His voice was far from sarcastic but it was too obvious to Elena that he was mocking her. "'Sides, we're better off sticking here for a while, in case our guy decided to stay put here."

"I guess you're right…" Elena muttered. "But sometimes I swear you just talk for the hell of it."

"Aw, you got me nailed down already." Reno said winking, "Now c'mon, let's go talk to these excavation guys."

Elena watched, staying a few yards behind Reno as he went over to a man dressed in green. He was quite clearly busy with his excavation job, but he talked fairly happily to Reno.

"… heard there were funny people startin' to hang 'round here." Elena heard Reno say as she approached the two men.

"Ya get 'em." The man replied, pounding the ground with his shovel. "There was this one guy though…"

"Oh yeah?" Elena saw Reno smirk. "What happened there then?"

"I dunno really, I didn't see 'im. But I heard he was some weird lookin' guy… a scientist or somethin'… guy at the hotel said he tried to book a room, but they turned 'im away. No one saw 'im after that…"

"How curious…" Reno said in a voice positively dripping with sarcasm. The man didn't seem to notice his tone though.

"Yeah, well…" he forced his shovel back into the ground. "Better get on with this work…"

"How do you do that?" Elena asked.

"Skilled conservationist. How else?" Reno said, without even having to ask what Elena was talking about. "And that tells me one thing…"  
"What?"

"He definitely high-tailed into the forest. This crap-hole is so small someone woulda noticed him."

"Right, so what now?" Elena asked.  
"Now…" Reno looked over towards the north. "We head out on our fun quest."

The first thing that struck Elena was the beauty. Reno seemed to take it for granted, having been here a lot of times before, but the environment surrounding them made Elena truly speechless.

The blonde breathed in deeply, inhaling the first bit of truly fresh air she ever had. Being stuck in Midgar her whole life, the air was always thick with traffic fumes, factory fumes from the reactors, and all sorts of other things. Of course, she had gotten used to it by now, since she had spent everyday of her life there, not including the time she had spent at Costa del Sol with Reno and Rude.

"Noisier than the fuckin' towns up here." Reno said quietly. Elena smiled; he was right, but the noises here were much more pleasant to listen to. The birds whistled away in their afternoon song, and animals scurried about beneath them. It was like music to Elena's ears to hear something so peaceful.

"What you thinking about?" Reno asked Elena. The blonde smiled, vaguely noticing how well Reno's slightly nasal voice complimented the background noise.

"Nothing." Elena said, gazing happily at the redhead. For some reason, she was a lot calmer now than what she had been before. "Let's go."

The two of them made their way slowly through the woods, treading on the crunchy bracken as they went. Reno seemed a little distant as well, so neither of them really said anything. Then, almost instantaneously, Elena sensed Reno's attitude change, and he stopped walking.

"Stop." He said in barely a whisper. Elena stopped dead still and listened. Nothing sounded any different to her. Reno stepped forward, somehow not making a sound, and looked somewhere of to his right. Elena watched him as he turned around and beckoned her to come closer. Doing as she was told, she walked towards Reno as he kicked some leaves apart.

"That way." The redhead said. His voice had been so quiet before it sounded like he was shouting before.

"How do you know?" Elena asked as the two of them carried on walking.

"Just the way the leaves were trodden down… someone's been in a rush." Reno said distantly.

The two of them walked again in silence, only comforted by the sound of their own footsteps, when once again, Reno stopped. This time though, Elena knew why he had stopped.

"And this is where it ends." Reno said, raising his head in a surprisingly amused fashion.

"The footprints have gone, so what now?" Elena asked, knowing from the smirk on his face that Reno knew exactly what he was doing.

"Well, either this guy sprouted wings and flew, or he's somewhere very…" he took a step forwards, "very…" and another, "close…"


	19. Chapter 19

**A/N: **Chapter by Le Pecore Nere. I have a feeling I may have messed this up when I uploaded it, so yeah...

_(LPN, I didn't change anything because I think Reno was pretty much in character, so don't worry.)_

Sorry updating's been very slow, my vacation is extremely busy right now. I'll be updating other stories soon though

Enjoy

**

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Chapter 19

Reno pounced suddenly into a bush; he disappeared between the thick green leaves. As he entered in, there came a strangled cry from beneath it, with a quick shout of "gotcha!" from Reno. This all happened in a span of about five seconds, and Elena had hardly any time to process all of this. She could see the bushes moving as Reno struggled to subdue the rogue scientist.

"You're a slick little fucker ain'tcha?" He said, and she could hear a few thumps as someone hit someone else. She watched as the man stumbled out of the bushes right in front of Elena. His glasses were eschewed, and his dark brown hair was riddled with twigs and leaves and dirt. She was shocked by the sudden bursting, and stumbled back a few paces. _"C'mon Elena, don't be such a baby…" _Her sister's voice sang through her head. She strengthened her resolve and pulled out her gun. _I'm not a baby, not anymore._ She thought. She pointed it squarely between the scared scientist's eyes. He held his hands up and was practically trembling from fear. This look reminded her almost of this boy she saw as a child. He looked like he hadn't had a decent meal in a while, and he was asking for food. She didn't have the heart to look at the boy, who had the same desperate look that the scientist's eyes held. That same feeling dawned on her and she lowered her gun.

The man had taken this opportunity and grabbed the gun, trying to wrench it from her hands. She struggled against him, but he had the force of gravity working with him, and she felt the gun slipping through her greasy grip.

That was when she saw a red blur that belongs only to Reno come out of the bushes and launch himself onto the man's back. The scientist gave a startled cry and fell back onto Reno. The gun was flung high into the air and span back down to the ground in lazy loops. The man made another lunge for the gun, but Reno pulled him back. She saw her chance; jumping over the tangled bodies, she landed squarely –and a bit roughly- to the ground. She scrambled quickly to her feet and grabbed the black barrel. She pointed the gun, more sure of herself than before. She didn't want to become the one with the barrel pointing at her, it didn't matter how pitiful the man looked.

She saw the scientist; in his now dirty, white lab coat stop struggling. Reno grabbed hold of his arm and pinned him to the ground. It was over.

"Laney, keep that gun on him. Now, I'm gonna get off you, and you're not gonna move, got it?" He addressed the scientist, who shook his head like a broken spring.

Doing as she was told, she kept the gun trained on the man's head. She felt uncomfortable with the cold metal in her hands. But she knew that if she showed any signs of relenting, the scientist would only take the chance to seize it. And they may not be so lucky to get it out of his reach again.

Reno cracked his long, bony fingers. "Now, here's the way it's gonna work, we're gonna take you back to our headquarters, and I'm not gonna hear a peep out of you… got it?" He said, but the tone of voice told both her and the scientist that it wasn't a question.

"No, p-p-please don't take me back! I'll do anything! I've got a wife and kid, please, let me go, I'll do anything!!" He pleaded. He was on his knees, imploring to Reno.

"Save it. You ain't got a choice in the manner." Reno told him, and crossed his arms. At this point the young scientist turned to Elena, his eyes full of panic.

"Please, Ma'am, you look kind and understanding! You've gotta let me go! Please Ma'am I'll do anything! I don't have much money, but you can have it!" He said, crawling on his knees toward her. She couldn't do this. She didn't think she could stand it. What if she were in his shoes, wouldn't she want a chance? She glanced unsurely at Reno, whose icy blue eyes looked back at her. She saw in those eyes a hardness that her sister had every day. That look also told her to get a grip. They'd come all this way, and she couldn't fold on Reno now. He was counting on her, Tseng was counting on her to do this and Shin-Ra, even though scientists were a dime a dozen, needed her to do this. In light of that, it seemed like a little begging wasn't too much. She pursed her lips and turned her gaze back on the scientist. She did her best to put that same icy coldness in her eyes, and hope she succeeded.

"You're going to have to come with us. R-… my partner is right; you don't have a choice in the matter." She told him. The very first thing drilled into her head was to never let anyone know your name. Was it because they didn't want emotional attachment? Or simply because if the person escaped they could find contact with you? Maybe both… but what she had said seemed to hit home. He stumbled back and gasped.

"I won't let you take me!" He said suddenly, and lunged at Elena. She felt the full weight of the scientist hit her; she let out a gasp of air as they both collided to the ground. She heard a deafening bang emitted from her gun. The man scrambled off of her, a look of surprise on his face. A red flower seemed to bloom open from a hole in his chest. He dropped to his knees in front of her, a look of shock forever plastered on his face. She moved into a crouched position, and stared at the scientist, who was now turning dead rapidly. She had done this… she looked down at her hands and saw the gun in a new light. She had done it, he was dead, maybe it was inadvertent, but he was dead. She cast the gun aside; she wanted nothing to do with it. There was so much blood coming from that little hole… who knew bodies carried so much blood? The world swam before her eyes and she felt this morning's breakfast lurch around her stomach. She was going to faint… or puke… or puke and faint… She turned around to the brambles behind her and threw up. She felt an arm snake around her shoulder. She turned and saw Reno crouched beside her. Thank God he was here. At least she wasn't in this alone.

"You gonna be ok?" He asked. She saw the body; no she had to avert her gaze. She fixed it instead at her hands. She felt if she had to look –or even think- about the dead scientist, she would puke again.

"I killed him Reno." She told him. She felt both stupid, for telling him this when she obviously did, and revolted, for having done it.

He wrapped his lanky arms around her. The gesture was supposed to be comforting, but Elena couldn't find any in it. Is this what this job was about? Finding people and killing them? She hoped not, but the coldness in her long-dead sister's gaze told her differently. The coldness in the usually warm gaze of Reno just seconds before told her else wise.

Maybe her sister was right; maybe she wasn't cut out for this job. Killing people wasn't something Elena was made to do. She couldn't easily dust her hands of something like that.

"Hey, it's not your fault, Laney." Reno told her quietly. She felt tears prick her eyes. Maybe he was right. She hoped he was right. But that didn't change the fact that there was one dead person with a bullet wound from her gun. Even if Reno was right, it didn't change how she felt.


	20. Chapter 20

**A/N: **I betcha you were all lookin' forward to this one. We FINALLY got around to updating this thing. This was s'posed to be my chapter, but since I got a lot on at the mo, LPN kindly did another chapter. I think she did an awesome job, and I hope you guys do as well

Enjoy

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Chapter 20

The ride back to headquarters was uneventful to say the least. Elena stared out the window, the dreary evening sky slowly descended to darkness.

Thoughts plagued her mind. It seemed like her old way of thinking was clashing with this new lifestyle. And she was stuck somewhere in the middle, trying to sort out what she wanted to do, and where she wanted to go with the opportunities presented to her.

On one hand, she had wanted something more from her life. She had been tired of her regular nine-to-five life. Sure, she wanted something different, and exciting, maybe a little risky if it came down to it. But she definitely didn't want something like this; Murder, theft, secrecy. It was against everything she was ever raised to believe...

_And, _she thought, _it's either now or never._ To leave her old, scheduled, and very predictable life behind scared her, and at the same time excited her. Did she _really_ want to leave it all behind? For this? She thought about the man, the almost comical way that he fell like a puppet whose strings were caught. For him, or others like him? Surely, she realized, this wouldn't be the only time she'd have to kill someone.

She felt horrible, almost disgusted at the prospect of having to do such a thing.

But Reno's voice broke into her thoughts "Hey 'Laney?" he spoke up.

"Yeah?" She turned away from the window and looked at him.

He seemed nervous "Um, y'know, it gets better," He started "It isn't always bad, some of it's cool. Like there was this mission where me n' Rude had to blow up this old train 'coz it was cloggin' up the water to Junon."

She stared at him. Was this his way of trying to comfort someone?

"Look, all I'm sayin' is, is that this mission was bad, but we move on. Sure, there's a bad mission here n' there, but we don't focus on that stuff, just the good ones."

Where did this come from? Who knew Reno could be so serious. But it made sense… what if he was right? What if she just, let it go? Like Reno said, "move on".

So as the helicopter descended onto the Shin-ra, Elena looked back, just once, onto the vast city of Midgar, and bade her old life, her old doubts, and her old fears a silent good-bye. _Now or never_, she thought, _it's time to take up something new. I'm sorry mom, for doing the very thing you warned me of._

But she had no regrets.

* * *

Tseng cleared his throat as he shuffled papers. "I trust that the mission went well?" He asked from his desk.

She sat in a chair, and Reno was next to her slouched, as always, and he seemed to not have even heard his boss, as usual.

"Yes, it did." She said, slowly, not really sure what to say.

"Good, I expect a full mission report tomorrow. But, well, seeing as though it was your first mission, I trust Reno will show you the proper way of filling out paperwork, and writing a report, right Reno?"

"Sure boss-man." Reno said "Can we go now?"

Tseng seemed very annoyed but he nodded "Yes, you're dismissed."

"Cool, c'mon 'Laney, I'll show ya how to do your paperwork and stuff." He said as he left.

She stood and followed him.

However she wasn't surprised as he led her to some bar in the slums. "Reno, I thought you were going to show me how to do paperwork." She said, thinking that it was probably a very important part of her job.

"Yeah, but it's a rule 'Laney, that all paperwork is done tomorrow." He told her as he sat down at the bar. She sighed as she sat down with him. She hadn't made it a very big habit of hers to drink, and as she recalled alcohol tasted horrible.

"You're going to show me how to do paperwork tomorrow?" She asked.

"Sure, why not?" He said as his eyes lit up, and he smirked.

She sighed, it figures; if he was like this at work, then he'd also be like this after a mission.

"C'mon 'Laney, don't be such a wet blanket." He told her, and gestured to a drink.

She made a face. "No, I-"

"Ah, here's Rude." He said as Rude walked in the bar.

Rude nodded, and the chair creaked as he sat down in it.

"'Laney, don't ya know? It's the law to have a drink after a mission like that." He told her.

Of course, she was very skeptical of such a law, but she knew that Reno wouldn't stop bothering her until she at least took a sip. So she squeezed her eyes, took the cup, and took a sip.

Good God, what was she getting herself into?


	21. Chapter 21

**A/N: **Ok, the next chapter is the last chapter, so me and LPN have decided to do the last two chapters together. Sorry about the seemingly abrupt ending, but we decided we should probably get this one finished since its been going for so long.

Enjoy

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**Chapter 21**

Elena opened her eyes slowly. What the hell had happened last night, and why did her head hurt so much? Then, slowly her memory returned to her…

"Oh God…" she groaned turning over in her bed.

"S'up 'Laney?" came a voice from next to her.

Elena's heart leapt into her throat as she looked over at the redhead sitting on her bed.

"Oh…" Elena said, calming down slightly. She sat up, ignoring her thumping head.

"What're ya doin' in bed on a beautiful day like this?" Reno stood up and opened the curtains letting the sunlight stream in.

"Reno…" Elena sighed shielding her eyes from the sun.

"C'mon 'Laney, we got paperwork to do." Reno sat back down and smirked. "You really can't handle your spirits can you?"

"Shut up." Elena threw her pillow at him, and then something clicked in her mind. "Hang on… what are you doing here?"

"Don't worry sweetheart, I slept on the couch." Reno grinned. "You should be grateful… I practically carried you here from the bar."

"Oh…" Elena looked down at herself to find she was still wearing her clothes from the night before. She felt horrible. "What time is it?"

"The time…" Reno pulled out his cell phone and looked at it. "…is 8:30 a.m. Better get crackin' eh 'Lena?"

"8:30?" Elena repeated whilst dragging herself out of her bed. "We've got to be at work in half an hour… how long have you been up?"

"About 3 minutes." Reno smirked and ruffled his hair. "See ya at work 'Laney."

Elena wandered around her room, looking for something to wear. Upon finding something, she quickly went into the shower. Her pounding head felt a little better against the hot steam, but not much. By the time she got out, it was 8:50. Great, she had ten minutes to get to work.

Grabbing her coat, she rushed out the door, knowing if she was late, she'd hear it from Tseng.

* * *

Considering the fact that she left late, she thought that getting to work at 9:15 was particularly good timing. Not even a minute after entering the building, she ran into Rude.

"Elena, Tseng wishes to see you in his office." He informed her.

"When?" She asked.

"Oh, about fifteen minutes ago." He told her. She sighed, well; she wasn't _that_ late… she hoped.

She entered her boss' office, and he greeted her. "Good morning Elena, slept in I assume." It wasn't a question.

"Um, yeah, you wanted to see me, sir?" She asked, sitting down.

"Yes, but we're still waiting on Reno to arrive."

"Wh- " she closed her mouth. She was about to ask Tseng why he hadn't arrived yet, he did leave a good twenty minutes before she did. But she didn't want to explain to Tseng what Reno was doing at her house. Even though nothing happened… or at least she _thought_ nothing happened, but most of last night's events were still foggy.

They sat together in the office in silence for at least ten minutes before the door banged open, and the red-head in question barged in.

"Hey, 'sup boss-man?" He asked, and plopped down on the chair beside Elena.

"How did the paperwork go?" Tseng asked, ignoring Reno's entrance.

"It went great." He told his boss with a smirk.

* * *

"You shouldn't lie to your boss." Elena said as the two Turks made their way back to Reno's office.

"I didn't lie…" Reno said. "I merely got my tenses confused. I meant to say it was _goin' _to go great."

"Of course you did…" Elena opened Reno's office door upon arrival and the two of them entered the office and sat down.

"Right…" Reno pulled his paperwork towards him. "Uh… ya know, they probably coulda picked a better person to show you…"

"It can't be that difficult…" Elena said, looking at Reno's papers.

"Right…" Reno said again. "Well, it _is _simple really. Ya just gotta put a date here, and signature there… it's when stuff goes wrong on missions that ya get the hard papers. Luckily I get mosta those, so don't worry 'bout it."


	22. Notice to Readers

Hey, everyone

**Hey, everyone!**

**I'm posting this message on all of my stories, even though I was hoping to update something before this Saturday. Unfortunately I haven't had time. **

**I won't be updating anything for at least another week, because I'm going on vacation on Saturday August 2****nd**** Then it's my birthday on August 12****th**** yay so things are gonna be a bit hectic for a while. Just bare with me, and don't disappear, please!! Last year it took me a while to get my reviewers back, so this is why I'm telling you now.**

**I get back on August 9****th****, and I'll update **_**something **_**as soon as I can.**

**Thanks so much for all your reviews and your patience, guys.**

**Love from,**

**reno-xxxXXXxxx**


	23. Chapter 22

**A/N: **Okay, I know I haven't updated this for MONTHS! But Le Pecore Nere only came online the other day so we could start it, so I'm really sorry about taking so long. I don't expect many reviews, since we've left it so long, but I thought it would be nice to finish it for the people that are reading. So please review if ya want to.

Le Pecore Nere did the first part of it, and I did the rest. Hope you enjoy it, as it is the LAST chapter.

Enjoy

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Chapter 22

Elena flipped through the stack of papers, finding it particularly boring. Reno was right; it was simple, just a signature here, and a date there. Only there were so many papers to do this to.

She looked up and found Reno making paper airplanes out of his paperwork. She sighed, at this rate, nothing would get done. The only thing he seemed to like to do was missions. And even then, he made light of that.

"_Don't take life so seriously, 'Lena, no one gets out alive anyway."_ She remembered him saying.

Ever since she was little, she had always tried so hard to impress people, her sister, and her mother. It was hard, she realized to just let go and be herself.

He had taught her how to laugh, how to love, and most importantly, how to live. Not just the thing she did everyday, waking up, going to work, going back to bed. Instead she woke up each morning, and found that she didn't know what surprises the day would bring; and instead of feeling fear for not having everything planned out in a nice little organizer, she felt happy, ready to face each thing that came to her.

Everything she was, and everything she could be suddenly changed. It was thanks to him, she wanted to be like him. He was so free.

She was inspired to be more, to do more. She was inspired by him.

She was so lost in her thoughts that she hadn't realized that she'd been staring at Reno.

"What, Laney, do I got somethin' on my face?" He asked, subconsciously wiping his face.

"I wouldn't worry so much about that, I'd worry more about your face itself." She said.

Reno raised his eyebrows "Was that a joke?" He asked, smiling "Hey Rude, 'Lena made her first joke."

"Wonderful." Rude said, although whether it was sarcastic or not, it wasn't apparent.

"Ha ha, Reno." Elena said, and he threw a paper wad at her. She threw one back.

By the end of the day, what was left of Tseng's paperwork was strewn about the floor in messy balls.

"What is going on here?" Tseng asked disapprovingly. "I would expect this sort of behaviour from Reno, but not from you Elena." He said, and her ears turned red.

"Aw, don't be so harsh on her, boss-man. I did it." Reno said, smirking.

"You mean to tell me you turned all your paperwork, and Elena's, into paper balls and threw them about the room?" Tseng asked disbelievingly.

"Yep." Reno said, still smirking.

"Is this true, Rude?" Tseng asked, turning to the only apparent bystander in the room.

"I don't know, I wasn't watching." Rude replied steadily.

Tseng sighed "I don't care who did it, I just want this mess cleaned up, and the paperwork turned in." He said frustrated, and turned back into his office.

Reno smirked again "You heard him, 'Lena."

* * *

"You started it!" Elena said loudly.

"Prove it." Reno leaned back in his chair smugly and crossed his arms. This argument had been going on for a good 10 minutes now, and Elena seemed no closer to winning. Something she wasn't sure if she liked or not, as strange as it sounded.

"I saw you." The blond said bluntly. "So did Rude…"

"Ah… but Rude'll be on my side when it comes down to it… won't ya, my bald friend?" Reno looked over to Rude who looked up from his paperwork and smiled slightly.

"Reno, clean it up." His partner replied.

"God damn it!" Reno shouted, suddenly getting on his feet. "It's a conspiracy, I tell ya! Well, at least _I _have hair!"

Elena giggled as Reno leant down on the floor to start picking up the pieces of paper. He did not look impressed. Smiling, Elena bent down to help him.

It didn't take long for them to pick them up, although Elena wasn't quite sure how they were going to do the paperwork that was now in the trash can on the floor. Maybe Tseng kept copies…

Reno stretched his back out, cracking the vertebrae as he did so. The sound made Elena cringe usually, but this time she didn't mind. Everything he did was interesting; it was such a strange feeling, but the blond couldn't help but stare at him as he knelt on the floor, looking into space.

"Reno?" Elena leaned in towards the redhead, trying to grab his attention. Reno snapped out of his daydream and looked at Elena, a slightly confused look on his face. Elena smiled.

"What?" the redhead said defensively.

"Nothing." Elena shook her head, but she couldn't help but carry on smiling. She had a funny feeling in the bottom of her stomach. Although she couldn't place what it was, she was quickly growing to like it.

Reno shook his head and pulled a slightly disgusted expression, before jumping to his feet and ruffling his hair at the same time.

"I'm going now. I'll see you two later." Rude said, getting up and picking up his now completed paperwork, presumably to take to Tseng. Elena hadn't realized how late it was getting; it was just about time to go home, but Elena didn't really want to for some reason. Reno didn't seem to be showing any signs of leaving either, as he was now sitting, fiddling with a pen. He looked slightly awkward.

"Reno?" Elena went closer to Reno as Rude left the room, shutting the door behind him.

"Hmm?" The redhead looked up casually, quickly adopting his trademark smirk again.

"Oh… nothing. Are you leaving now?" she asked casually. She cursed herself silently; she was making it seem like she wanted him to go.

"Yeah, in a sec'…" he began fiddling with his pen again. "Just thinkin' 'bout where I'm gonna go get plastered tonight…" Elena wasn't sure if the darkness in his voice was just her imagination…

"You know…" She said in an attempt to bring him around. "If you have to get drunk so much, it tells me that you're really miserable in this job… are you?"

"Nah…" the redhead suddenly perked up. "I like it really… it's all right now, anyway."

"Now?" Elena enquired.

"Yep… I got you to annoy now. I was runnin' outta 'bald' jokes, it was getting' a bit borin'." Reno smirked and got to his feet. "Heh, welcome to the team, 'Lena."

Although that sentence was full of sarcasm, and seemed have an underlying threat, it made Elena smile. She was part of a team, and she'd never been in such a situation before. And what an interesting team it was… she just knew there would never be a dull day from now on. It might not have been the best job in the world, and she certainly wasn't going to heaven, but she had met people she could call friends. People she felt about like she'd never felt about anyone else before…

"You doin' a lot of starin' an' smilin'…" Reno said, raising an eyebrow. "Are ya on somethin'? More importantly, can I have some?"

"It's nothing…" Elena shook her head. "So, where are you gonna go tonight?"

"You mean where am I gonna go to waste my spare time, my money and annoy the shit outta the bartender? I gotta better idea…" The redhead quickly slipped his hand in Elena's and pulled her out of the office. He didn't even bother going to see Tseng, just headed straight for the entrance.

When he got outside, he slowed his pace, but didn't let go of Elena's hand. It wasn't a tight grip; it was one Elena gladly returned. One that sent a shiver through her arm and down her spine. There was an excitement inside her that she wasn't sure how to show. The two of them walked down the street, hand in hand, even though Elena wasn't overly sure where they were going. She prayed silently that he wasn't taking her to a bar, but knowing him, he was. They walked on in the dusky street, lit by the setting sun. The sky was cloudless, and all the houses and trees looked like silhouettes against the orange sky. They walked past Reno's favourite bar, past all the bars, all the houses, until they were almost out of the town completely. Without saying a word, the redhead sat on a nearby bench, and Elena followed suit.

The view was truly stunning, and neither of them needed to say anything. Reno just sat, staring at the sun-stained sky, and Elena stared at him. He didn't seem the type to be impressed by simple things, but the slight smile on his face said everything. The light seemed to emphasize his red hair, and she had never realized before just how good-looking he was. She didn't like to use the word 'handsome', mainly because that definitely didn't describe Reno at all.

It was a strange thought, but, aside from all his jokes and pranks, it seemed the redhead did have a sensitive side, but he liked to keep it hidden most of the time. Or maybe he was just inspired by Elena to show a little more than a cold exterior. He was inspired by her… just as she was inspired by him.

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**A/N: **There ya go! I hope you enjoyed the story, and sorry about the slightly cheesy ending. It was the best I could think of. Please review and let us know what you thought.

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